"Grayco is also developing the 219-unit Museum Place residential project in the 5300 block of Fannin, Houston's affluent Museum District. The first units will deliver in September 2008 with construction slated for completion in May 2009. "
A newly formed Houston real estate firm has aligned itself with Camden Property Trust to develop apartment and mixed-use developments across the country.
Grayco Partners, led by former Finger Cos. executive Jeff Gray, and Houston-based Camden have pooled $90 million in equity that could grow to $140 million, supporting more than a half-billion dollars worth of development.
The first two local projects under the Grayco-Camden agreement include a 119-unit complex on Westheimer near River Oaks and a 344-unit complex on North Braeswood. Grayco will develop the projects, and Camden will manage them.
Construction is under way on both projects.
Located on Westheimer just west of Kirby, The Belle Meade at River Oaks will be a six-story building with two levels of parking built on a full city block.
Rents will be in the $1.78-per-square-foot range.
Braeswood Place will be just east of Stella Link. It's replacing a 1960s apartment complex called Gardens of Braeswood. Rents will start at $1.35 per square foot.
Grayco is developing a third complex in the Museum District in a separate partnership with Lionstone Group, a Houston-based real estate investment firm.
Bounded by Oakdale, Prospect, San Jacinto and Fannin, the six-story midrise will be just north of the Museum of Fine Arts complex. The light rail line is less than 200 feet from the site.
Rents in Museum Place will be in the $1.75-per-square-foot range.
The project will be more "edgy and contemporary in feel," Gray said, with a lot of floor-to-ceiling glass.
Gray left the Finger Cos. last year after more than 18 years working with veteran apartment developer Marvy Finger.
In addition to apartments, Grayco plans to build mixed-use developments in urban areas around the country.
The company is developing 100,000 square feet of retail space and hundreds of housing units on 26.5 acres on Town Lake in Austin, and has projects in Charlotte, N.C., and Atlanta.
"Given what's happened in most U.S. cities, land prices have escalated rapidly, and the density of the type of construction you're building today is not what it was five, 10 or 15 years ago," Gray said.
Zaza opening pushed back
The redevelopment of the historic Warwick Hotel into a flashier, modern boutique hotel called the Zaza has been extended, and it won't open until early June.
Developer Charles Givens said the project was initially envisioned as a basic update of the existing hotel.
"As we kept going along and looking at the neighborhood ... we realized we needed to make the hotel a more urban resort," Givens said.
The hotel's amenities have expanded. Changes Givens thought would take one month took three.
The property at 5701 Main St. will have a 10,000-square-foot spa and fitness center, a resort-style pool with cabanas and 18 suites that will have themes like Rock Star and An Affair to Remember.
Monarch, the hotel's restaurant, will run the entire west side of the building facing Main Street and the Mecom Fountain. At night it will evolve into a lounge.
Givens said the hotel is in "Houston's most enlightened area."
"We love it here, and if we're going to be here, we wanted to be the absolute, very best," he said.
Despite its central location and prestigious past, the Warwick's redevelopment into the Hotel Zaza wasn't a risk-free proposition.
During the oil boom of the 1970s and 1980s, other high-end properties were built, displacing the Warwick as one of Houston's top hotels.
And in later years, the property was often overlooked because it's not in a major shopping or office district like the Galleria area or downtown.
But this area could soon look a lot different from its past, because museums are planning major expansions, along with new housing and restaurants being added.
"Younger people are more interested in arts now. It's a whole new social connection, and businesses embrace the arts more than they ever did before," Givens said.
The hotel will also have meeting space for corporate events.
Trammell Crow's retail plans
Trammell Crow Co. is ramping up its retail development division.
The Dallas-based firm that has a large local presence recently announced a development venture with MetLife to buy land and build shopping centers in major metro areas in Texas, California, Florida, Arizona, Georgia, Oregon, Colorado and the Northeast.
The company will target 10- to 100-acre tracts of land for community shopping centers to large open-air projects in urban and suburban locations.
Trammell Crow is an independently operated subsidiary of CB Richard Ellis Group. Its first development with MetLife is a 430,000-square-foot power center in the Orlando area.
nancy.sarnoff@chron.com
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